28/8/2010

To start things off, last Saturday there was an inter-school floorball competition. And Hamid Khan, adopted by fireBrands managed to get the bronze medal. Good job guys, and coaches Gary and Daniel.

Sooo, we continue with youth service. The evening started with an always powerfull time of worship.

After a long cycle, Ming Yen was back for announcements that night.

Among the news, we are proud to welcome 2 new members into the worship team.

Chew Yan-Y and Gerald Soon.

Daniel also shared some of his experiences from India. I'll try to get a hold of the video.

Moving on, the speaker that night was the smoooooooth Leroy Tan.

Prayer Secrets.

1. Your personal relationship with God.

⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

John 15 : 7-8

2. The will of God.

4This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

1 John 5 : 14-15

God's knowledge and wisdom is always perfect, yours is not. Remember that.

3. God will hear the prayer of the righteous.

⁹ If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law,
even his prayers are detestable.

Proverbs 2 : 9

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

James 5 : 16

Coming back to Worship.

Now that there's no more bible class, dinner is the first thing we come together for. I guess it helps those who get cranky when hungry.

So after dinner we all got back for prayer.



-Pastor Victor and Aunty Rama are still in India so do continue to keep them in prayer

After pre-service prayer was toilet break. Don't know why I mention it every week. Anyway, followed by worship lead by Sharon Leow.

Announcements was also done by her that week.

Remember the bible quiz that Indy was asking everyone to take some time ago? It wasn't a joke. The results were out and a few of us got certificates. To those that didn't take.. IN YOUR FACES. xP

Notice how everything in this picture is normal. Tania getting an academic award, Sarah Khoo smiling in the back even though the picture is not of her, and James playing the ol I mean young man. xD (old people are always called to give away awards.)

That week we also had a few Japanese friends. Japanese are from Japan. Not Dalat or Uplands. Just so you know.

Then was the main bulk of the night our speaker Marcel Lee. Not sure how you spell it. He's Eunice Lee's uncle.

He spoke about Worship.

The main points that can be picked out from what he said were that,

Everything we do in life is an act of worship.

¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Romans 12 : 1

Anything that does not glorify God is not an act of worship.

After he spoke for a while we did something different. He picked up his guitar and lead us into a time of Praise and Worship.

He wrote a few of the songs. We sang a Bahasa and Hokkien song. The hokkien song was super nice.

Then he prayed blessings over all of us and us over him and his 'ex-girlfriend' Its his wife. HE MADE IT UP NOT ME.


I think many lives were impacted one way or the other that night. And we learned a little bit more about worship and how it should be a lifestyle.

Thanks for reading.

Reliving 14.8.10

Take muscular, hefty and strapping, and put them in a much leaner context and you get: tonight's speaker!

(Three 'and's in the opening sentence. This cannot be good.)

But to save this post from The Unappealing Land where all less-than-readable posts go, chronologically is the way we'll flow:)

..


Dinner for many at the it-never-gets-old coffeeshop opposite before preservice prayer.

A little past 7 p.m., (fireBRANDS, seriously, do make it a point to join in on this) the congregation gathered around the piano and prayed for a few points. Among them: Daniel Tan who's still in India, Pr Victor & Aunty Rama who're gonna leave for India and be there for a month, service that night, and the speaker.






Moving on, it was time for youths to go to the toilet. It's optional btw, whether you wanna go or not.


So next up, worship led by Sharon Leow, backed up by the ever-awesome fireBRANDS' worship team! But y'know what, it's not about them and it's not about us either. God is what this time is all about.

So if it looks like this from upstage, makes you wonder how it looks like from up there..

Hands lifted high;


whether you're in the crowd or on the stage.


This..


..is how we worship through song.

That was great.

Followed quickly by announcements that were babbled out by (surprise, surprise..):

Joyce Lim!

Longgg list of things to herald that night.

First up Sarah Khoo was invited, and when you see Sarah's face you see BIRTHDAYS. It was like 2-in-1 instant coffee mix that night: July and August babies, one shot!

Praying for the celebraters (yeh that is a word).
They were then sent off back to their seats (on the floor that night) with sweets.

Secondly, huddle-style again, sending off Pr Victor and Aunty Rama with a host of prayers to uphold them as they leave for India. (And will be back in a month, right?)



Thirdly (this sounds like a recipe book), something really touching and heartwarming. Really. It was moving, it was teary-eyed.
Dedicated to someone special and more-than-deserving of the honour. Not a fireBRAND yet will always be a fireBRAND.
Coach Jason Chan, we appreciate you. Alot.

Gary Lee, fBFC's manager-and-coach giving the appreciation speech.

Pr Victor then presented him with an angpow, a small repayment for all that he's sacrificed for fireBRANDS Floorball Club to build it to what it is today.

I know you read the announcements in less than 1 minute but on that night it was almost 10 times longer okayy.

And finally the highlight of a night, what a happy coincidence to have two floorball giants amongst us (I mean besides the ones in fBFC).

Floorball coach & pioneer, church-planter, pastor, mentor, dad, husband and above all, follower of Christ:

..he's no stranger to us..

..Pastor Edward Lim!
His smile here turns lean-and-mean into lean-and-Colgatey-clean.

Having gotten to know Pr Victor more through a trip they made down to KL recently (ok, add 'friend' to the list up there), the title of his message was, befittingly for the fireBRANDS:

Becoming A Victor

*fuyoh.

Secara ringkasnya, inti pati khutbahnya:


ONE: It is not about the crown.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians about athletes in a race. All of them run, but only one will win. They do it for a perishable crown, but we run this race for one that will not fade away.

Sorta like the leaf-crown Paul was talking about: will rot.

Anyways, like Peter says, when Christ comes, we will receive a crown that will never fade away.

SO, what is it really about then?

1. Process that trains us. Like how athletes undergo strict training.
2. Purpose/Focus. Paul knew what he was doing.
3. Preparations/Discipline.

Nien Zhi listening and taking notes. People, do try taking notes. It keeps you awake (not that you'll need that when someone like Pr Ed is speaking though) and helps you understand and remember more.

TWO: There will be challenges and challengers.

David and Goliath. Okay, okay, I know you know the story in-and-out, you even memorised how tall Goliath was, your Sunday school teachers spent hours' worth of lessons drilling it into your head, about how a small shepherd boy menumpaskan a big bad big Philistine bully....

....but, oh boy, wait till you hear Pr Edward's rendition! paraphrasing is the new thing.

A note: David was NOT small. The Bible says that he could actually wear Saul's armour and walk around in it. Saul, the fella who was a head above everyone else in Israel (until Goliath came along and prolly like burst his bubble hahah). But David didn't wear the armour because he wasn't used to it.

Challenges will come. Sometimes the people who're closest to us are the ones who will come and question, "Are you sure this is what God wants you to do?"

David decided to take the position of a soldier (that time, joining the army was mandatory only to men above 20 years of age). Sometimes we will have to cross the boundary and do something totally radical and different.

David decided to use the sling that God has been training him with since he was a shepherd boy. He believed God was training him.

Army: sword, spear, javelin
David: sling, stone, God

Midway through the sermon.

THREE: We are more than conquerors.

In Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes that all things work together for good to those who love God. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Gideon. No that photo below is not Gideon (yeah he does look mighty doesn't he)..

So Pr Ed again paraphrased his way through what happened many, many centuries ago to Gideon.

Gideon was a coward. God called him 'mighty warrior'.
David was a nobody. God called him 'king'.
God calls you by future tense!

That time, the Israelites were hiding in caves whereas the Midianites and Amalekites dominated the land. The Bible said they numbered 'as numerous as locusts'. Ok, locusts. What's the big deal? I can count houseflies, aren't houseflies like locusts?

Behold, a swarm of locusts! The Midianites were as uncountable as that.

Gideon gathered an army of 30,000. God cut that down to 10,000. And cut it down again to....

..300 (Israelites, not Spartans).

Why?

If 10,000 beat innumberable foes, they would be considered conquerors.

But, when 300 beat the Midianites, they were more than conquerors.

It's the presence of God in you, with you that makes you more than a conqueror.



So the message concluded with an illustration.

Iron Man, the Marvel superhero in his self-fashioned red-and-yellow suit of armour.
His electromagnetic chestpiece was originally meant to save his life (to stop a piece of shrapnel embedded in his chest from reaching his heart), not to give him superpowers.
Likewise, God's original purpose was to save us.

Service ended with a time of worship and ministry.

7/8/2010

Youth service last week started with prayer last week.

Take note there will be no more bible class until further notice. But it would be great if you guys still came at 6.00 pm to spend time with one another and have dinner together.

Take note one firebrand is currently in India on a mission trip. He's gonna be there for around 2 weeks. He is the 1 and only Daniel Tan. So we actually have this schedule thing that makes sure that Daniel is kept in prayer everyday that he is there. So you just put your name there and pray.

And it doesn't matter if you didn't put your name up you can still keep Daniel in prayer.

Pastor Victor and Aunty Rama will be joining Daniel some where on the second week of his trip. Do keep them in constant prayer as well.


After prayer was the all 'important' short break followed by worship lead by Beverly and her team.

Next. Our speaker that day, the home grown Eunice Lee.

This kinda looks like a sleepover.

We finished quite early that night. Around 8 something. So what do youths do?

We play the fools.

And the girls take pictures of themselves.

Repeatedly.

Thats all for this weeks youth service. Thanks for reading.

Security

Last week was Secure Seminar with Pastor Sam.

Things kicked of at 9.00 in the morning with the first session.

Followed by a break at 11.00 and then session 3 at 11.30

Ushers working 'hard'

Pastor Sam spoke about well, security in life. In the first session he emphasized mainly on the fact that, our God is such a wonderful, great, powerful etc how small are our problems and insecurities in life.

AHHH! That guy has a pair of converse shoes. Your God created the whole universe which is I dunno how many quintillion square miles big. So, maybe other peoples shoes or your body fat is not that important.


Don't mess with him he can speak hokkien. Seriously.

Evidence A.

Evidence B.

After the afternoon sessions the seminar continued that night with the 3rd and last session at 7.30

Listening attentively.

And just so you know Pastor Sam wrote a book its called 'Found in Christ'. You can get it for RM 12 just contact Pastor Victor.

* This picture is to show the book, not Sarah Khoo

Big thank you to all the ushers, l.c.d people, sound men and all those involved in making this seminar a great success.

And also to Tania and Yan-Y for the photos.